by Simon Daish

Seeded 14th for the Women’s Singles draw Chen Xingtong of China faced a difficult quarter-final tie with fellow countrywoman Chen Meng the top seed for the event but, despite the odds being stacked against her, Chen Xingtong was the player who emerged from the match victorious.

Right from the start the match was closely contested with both of the opening two games requiring deuce before leaving the scores level at one game apiece. Then Chen Meng began to put some distance between her and Chen Xingtong with the capture of the third and fourth games to move the no.1 seed to within a game win from the next round.

However, Chen Xingtong made a remarkable comeback claiming back-to-back games to draw the tie level, before going on to recover from 4-8 down to win the deciding game 13-11 and consequently eliminate the top seed Chen Meng from the competition (12-14, 15-13, 2-11, 11-13, 11-8, 12-10, 13-11).

“I played well throughout the game I was really confident about myself even when I was 8-4 down in the last game. I did the right things just the points went her way. When I had my match point I knew the serve that I had go for and it proved to be a very good choice”, Chen Xingtong.

Success for Chen Xingtong could prove interesting for China’s squad selection for the upcoming Liebherr 2017 World Championships in Düsseldorf, as she also finished in eighth position at the recent Chinese trials event.

The other match in the top half of the quarter-finals draw saw Monaco’s Yang Xiaoxin seal her place in the last four of the tournament after the no.11 seed held off the challenge of the Dutch competitor Britt Eerland.

Yang Xiaoxin required seven games before she eventually managed to inflict defeat upon her opponent from the Netherlands (2-11, 11-8, 12-10, 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7) to guarantee her spot in the semi-finals, and the winner of two Women’s Singles gold medals on the ITTF World Tour (2014 Croatia Open and 2016 Czech Open) stated that she was happy with her performance against Britt Eerland in Budapest.

“I am delighted to win this match, she was very good all the way through the match consistent and very spinny. It was hard to play against. I made better choices I think and tactically played better on the points which decided the outcome of the match”, Yang Xiaoxin.